


I'm Right Beside You

by cassandracalls



Series: A Shorter Song [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Medical Abuse, Trans Female Character, jovial agony, no on appreciates hana's jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 12:34:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13951650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandracalls/pseuds/cassandracalls
Summary: Two surgeries and one foot down, Hana and Sombra begin their recovery after the crash.





	1. Strapped In

Have you ever seen a gorilla scrub up to perform surgery? It takes a while. And that is not the only thing that takes a while. Sombra has a wealth of implants. All of which need to be removed and replaced and that’s on top of the fact that her spine was severed, her stomach punctured and while the expanding foam Hana used to fill her wound most likely saved her life it did it’s share of damage as well. Plus all of the cuts, burns, bruises and an unhealthy helping of impact trauma.

 

And then there was Hana.

True to her word she never left Sombra.

True to her word Angela didn’t try and make her. 

Hana did, however, dismiss the idea of a general anesthetic.

“Just give me a local and get me high Doc, I already cut part of it off myself without anything. This’ll be easy.”

Angela held her patience with the same care she held her patients and got on with it.

 

The surgeries were successful if you were wondering. It took a long time and a lot of hard work. No one died and the two girls were fixed up, relatively speaking, rather than just patched up to keep them alive for now.

  
  


“Y’know, my leg seems to keep getting shorter.” It was the first thing that Hana said to Sombra as she woke up. The joke fell flat, it’s generally better to wait for someone to actually be capable of conscious thought before hoping they’ll get a joke. More so if it’s a joke in their second language. Ah well, live and learn. Or at least live. Living really was the most important part of this whole ordeal.

 

It took Sombra a moment to work out where she was, a look of panic crossed her face when she realised she was in a hospital, yes, it wasn’t actually a hospital but cut the girl some slack. Her expression calmed when she turned her head (she could turn her head!) and saw Hana’s gentle smile. 

It got better. 

She could feel her legs! 

She couldn’t move them for some reason but she could feel them. The world was still monochromatic so her implants hadn’t been repaired but the world didn’t exist through a haze of agony. This was definitely the best she had felt since she was impaled to the floor. Sure, that may seem like a low bar, but if you’d ever been through something like that you’d know it’s a pretty important one.

 

“Welcome back to us Sombra.” The voice made it apparent that it wasn’t just her and Hana in the room. The doctor looked tired. She looked very tired but still her smile was warm and genuine, her eyes kind. This was the most at ease Sombra had felt around a doctor in a very, very long time. Well, she didn’t feel actually at ease but she didn’t want to curl up and crawl inside herself either. Which, again, may seem like a low bar but it was a pretty important one.

She balled her hands into tight fists and released them (which she could also do now!) to help her focus.

 

“I can’t move my legs.”

 

“No.” Angela’s voice was very matter-of-fact but not without sympathy “You have restraints on. Not to keep you here, you can release them yourself.” She hurried to say when the panic began to show in Sombra’s face. “But, I hasten to add, you shouldn’t. You’ve just had rather extensive spinal surgery. Some time to heal before you go rushing around would be beneficial. May I?”

Angela gestured to the sheets covering her legs. Sombra swallowed and gave a curt nod.

“Thank you. Now, would you like for Hana to remain or would you rather some privacy for this?”

 

“Hana stays.”

 

“Of course. Hana, are you happy with that?”

 

From her bed Hana sticks her now much shorter leg in the air and with a smile says

“Little late for me to run away now!”

 

There was a sigh. It came from Angela, she had the look of someone who was far more used to these antics than she wanted to be.

 

“Thank you Hana.” They spoke in unexpected unison. That moment and the smile it caused them to share is what Sombra would later be able to pinpoint as the beginning of a connection that she had never intended to form (it may have been unintended but it was never regretted).

 

Angela carefully removed the sheets covering Sombra and showed her the 5 straps holding her down from just beneath her breasts to her ankles. Showed her the release catches and how to work them. Stressed how important it was that they stay in place for now. Got Sombra to close her eyes so she could test that she could feel from toes to head. When Sombra opened her eyes again it was to a wide, bright smile and a single word.

 

“Perfect.”

 

Despite her apprehension she smiled back at the doctor. She couldn’t help it, very few people can when they come up against Angela’s compassion.

 

“Now about your implants. All of the casings have been replaced but not the implants themselves. Once both you and Winston have gotten some rest. Because, Hana, people need to rest.” Her comment was so pointed it could have impaled someone to the floor.

 

“Pfft.” Was all that could be heard from the other bed.

 

“Anyway, once you are both rested he will come and talk to you about crafting replacements. But before that I believe one of them was involved in hormone regulation? Oestrogeen production yes?”

  
  


Sombra swallowed nervously and gave a small nod.

Angela took a box out of her lab coat pocket and placed it on the table by Sombra’s bed.

 

“One a day until that’s back in action.” As she spoke Angela poured a glass of water for Sombra so she could take her stop-gap medication. 

 

The nervous swallow turned into a small smile that also came with a small nod. Her breath hitched in her throat and she felt an itchy burn behind her eyes. This didn’t happen. This isn’t how people treated her. Ever. And it was just. It was just too much. She pushed her palms into her eyes but the pressure did nothing to stop the tide of emotion as it washed over her. 

Angela held out her hands with a questioning look on her face. Silently Sombra nodded as she wiped tears from her cheek.

 

Angela moved in toward Sombra and wrapped her arms around her, at least she wrapped her arms around her as well as the bed and restraints would allow. Sombra held returned the embrace and let the warmth envelop her as she cried a lot of bad things out of her system.


	2. Wrong Footed

Winston had been studying Sombra’s implants, well, Winston had been assisting in surgery, well, most recently Winston had been sleeping. It was the kind of thing that exhausted him, he had always been more comfortable tinkering with electronics rather than people. Medical procedures always made him nervous, always ate through every ounce of energy he had, no matter how many he assisted in (and he always thought of himself as assisting, never performing). And he spent more time than he’d like assisting. He knew too many people who had prosthetics, robotics, electronics, and a tendency to hurl themselves full force at danger to not be in the medical bay regularly. And it took forever to get the antiseptic smell out of his fur.

  
  


Winston took a deep breath as he held the door handle to Sombra’s (Sombra and Hana’s) room. It didn’t prepare him for the sight that awaited him. Hana was, thankfully, fully covered. That there were three women in the room instead of two wasn’t too surprising given that Angela wasn’t in her office. What was surprising is that all three of them were sleeping. Hana and Sombra in their respective beds, Angela half sprawled over Sombra. He let out a low rumbling chuckle at the sight and briefly considered taking a picture. He thought better of it. He knew Hana and Angela well enough to know how they would react but not Sombra, making the action feel like an invasion of privacy. 

It was good to see Angela getting some sleep, she really needed to do that more. Hana as well for that matter, both of them seemed to have problems taking proper care of themselves. Not that it seemed like the best position for Angela to sleep in, bent at the waist over the bed and it’s occupant, legs not exactly dangling and not exactly supporting her weight but somewhere in between. 

With a kind smile on his face he turned off the lights as he glanced between the beds and nodded at the choice made. One of the benefits of having large, strong hands and soft fur is that it makes it easier to pick people up without waking them. He was more experienced at moving sleeping friends than you might expect, it was almost as though many people he knew had a tendency to over exert themselves. 

Slowly and with great care Winston lifted Angela and placed her on the other bed next to Hana. He knew that they occasionally shared a bed together when Fareeha was away, and sometimes when she wasn’t. Both of them  had trouble sleeping, and sometimes found it easier to close their eyes together rather than apart, so they probably wouldn’t have a problem waking up next to each other. 

Angela would certainly find it less embarrassing than waking up face down on Sombra. While he was happy to put Angela on the bed with Hana he didn’t feel comfortable moving the sheets off Hana to put her under them. Not that Hana would have minded, having consistently shown a total lack of self-consciousness about her body. After covering her with a fresh sheet from one of the cupboards he looked down on the two sleeping women and smiled. This he could take a picture of. It would have been a good picture with how peaceful they both looked, which in itself felt miraculous given the circumstances, but, with how peaceful they looked taking a picture would have felt like an intrusion so he didn’t.

He sat down, took out his tablet and went over the plans for Sombra’s implants, jotting down notes on possible improvements and waited.

 

The voices in the room were hushed and didn’t make much sense to Hana as she gradually rose back up to the world from her comfortable and hazy sleep. Letting out a long gravelly moan she stretched her arms out behind her and arched her back only to find her chest coming into contact with something soft and warm. It was probably a good time for her to open her eyes. So she did. 

That was the face of a sleeping doctor really not far from her own. 

The sight was unexpected but not unfamiliar. It was the good kind of unexpected. A smile pulled at her lips, she always found a certain amount of pleasure in seeing Angela when she slept. The voices had stopped when she started moving. It wasn’t her bed they were in, or Angela’s. It was one of the beds in the medical bay. Also unexpected but not unfamiliar, given the number of nights she’d spent in them. Not that much of the good kind of unexpected. She carefully pushed herself up, not wanting to disturb Angela in their close confines, and waved to Winston and Sombra (well that explained the hushed voices) before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She felt like she was forgetting something. An important something. Maybe that’s why Winston and Sombra both called out her name in urgent whispers. They succeeded in getting her attention at least, she turned her head to face them as she pushed herself off the bed.

Hana Song seemed to be having a real memory problem when it came to how many feet she currently had. She mentally scolded herself for this on her journey to the floor.

  
  


Angela shot up in bed at the crash, instantly alert and looking around. Four thoughts ran through her head at the same time:

 

  1. Someone’s hurt.
  2. Someone’s attacking.
  3. Why am I sleeping in the med bay?



All of which were the background noise to

  1. How do I help?



 

“Winston?” Angela questioned, receiving a nod in response as he moved around her bed. Sombra, for her part, stayed in her bed for obvious reasons. Seeing the two of them Angela started to understand what had happened and the pieces of that puzzle, much like Hana seconds ago, fell into place. She knew she was right when a hand shot up from the side of the bed and a voice called out.

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine!”

 

“Hana?” Winston said as he offered her help up. 

 

She waved his hand away.

“Nuh-uh. I’m good, I got this.”

 

With reluctance he stepped back to give Hana some space as she gripped the side of the bed and, with a grunt, pushed herself upright. She was a little unsteady on her feet, nope, foot, she corected herself as she hopped backwards to lean against the wall. The dull thud of her back hitting the wall broke the rooms tense silence and everyone else spoke at once.

 

“Hana, you need to be more careful.”

“Are you okay?”

“Do you want help?”

 

In order that was Angela, Sombra and Winston.

 

Hana raised her hands to silence them and smiled a wicked smile.

“I’m fine, I’m fine… I guess I’m just not used to being a foot shorter yet.” Her eyes lit up at her own bad joke so much that the lights didn’t need to be turned back on.

 

Their responses, in the same order, were:

An exasperated sigh.

“Can I just be impaled again?”

A throaty chuckle.

 

“Winston!” Angela’s voice was stern, “Do not encourage her.”

 

“Winston! Do encourage her!” Came Hana’s retort.

 

That turned his chuckle into a full on laugh as he moved the wheel chair to where Hana could easily reach it if she wanted. For her part, Hana looked on with joy at what she had wrought. Being a foot shorter had apparently not put a dent in her sense of fun.

 

“You know Winston,” Angela disentangled herself from the sheets and stood up as she spoke, “I cannot for the life of me remember getting into bed with Hana.”

 

“Oh, really?” Winston said.

 

“I’m just that irresistible Doc.” Hana said as Angela stretched out her back and smoothed down her clothes. “You should thank me and my magnetism, otherwise you may have woken up face down on Sombra.”

 

Evil, that’s what Hana was, pure evil. At least if you went by her smile and the glint in her eyes. The look of horror on Angela’s face may have been because of Hana’s revelation or it could be because she just felt what had become of her hair while she was sleeping. The blush, however, was very much down to the revelation, Sombra had one to match. It was cute. Hana’s smile went from wicked imp to something altogether kinder at their flustered states as Angela carefully avoided any kind of eye contact with anyone as she ran her fingers through her hair and searched the bed for her hair band.

 

“D, Doctor?” Sombra’s voice was hesitant, there was the ghost of a smile on her lips from Hana’s antics. Maybe that was why she felt comfortable enough to ask the question. “Who else knows about me?”

 

“That you’re here?” Angela’s voice was calm and measured, wanting to avoid a return of Sombra’s earlier panic. “It’s no secret. Nor is the fact that you’re receiving medical treatment. Anything beyond that is no one else’s concern. The only people who know anything more than that are myself, obviously, Hana, who has stayed with you. Other than the two of us it is only Winston and Athena, both of whom are instrumental in your treatment. The details other people know about you will be decided by you. No one else.”

 

“Thank you.” Her smile was upgraded from ghost to slight.

 

“How’s Jack taking it?” Hana asked.

 

“He’s not happy.”

 

“When is he ever?”

 

“I know,” Angela sighed “I know. Now,” she turned to face Sombra, “if I could speak with you privately for a moment I would appreciate it. It’s okay” wanting to prevent the coming worry “there is nothing to worry about. It is more of a personal matter.”

 

Concern flashed over Sombra’s face until the weight and warmth of Angela as she held her came to mind. The thought eased her and she gave a nod.

 

“WINSTON!” Hana yelled, pointing her finger in the air, breaking any tension that may have been left in the room.

 

“Hana?” He asked as he stepped over to her.

She put her arms around his neck and swung herself around onto his back.

 

“Away!” She pointed to the door.

 

“Yes my lady.” He said with a chuckle.

 

“Hana, you have a wheelchair you know.” Angela felt the need to point this out, she was quite certain of the effect it would, or rather would not have.

 

“Doctor Zeigeler!” Hana’s voice full of mock shock, “I am appalled!” Her hand cast dramatically against her forehead. “How? How could you possibly think that a mere wheelchair could ever compare to Winston?”

 

Angela closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose.

“Go.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “But don’t stray too far, Satya is coming to see you.”


	3. Bespoke Silence

Once the door was closed Angela placed a chair by Sombra’s bed, this time opting to sit next to her patient rather than falling asleep on top of her.  
“There is something I need to talk to you about and it will not be pleasant, I am sorry about that.” Her voice was gentle, her face radiated sympathy.

“Okay.”

“This doctor?” Angela pulled up the relevant medical files on her tablet and handed it to Sombra.

The second she saw who Angela was talking about her eyes widened and her breath became short sharp gasps.

“It’s alright.” Angela took hold of Sombra’s trembling arm. “It’s alright. I do not wish to speak to them of you.”

“Then, then wh, wh, why?”

“Because they should not be practicing.” A confused look from Sombra. “Not with what they did to you, and undoubtedly others.”

“How did you?”

Angela shrugged.  
“Experience of such things. Your reaction to me. The feel of their notes. The fact that I am the first doctor to see you since.”   
Sombra wanted to look anywhere but at Angela.  
“You are not the only person to walk through those doors who has suffered at the hands of a person who should help you. It is entirely your choice. If you do not wish to tell me anything then I will support you in that.” Angela held out her hand, asking for permission without words, Sombra gave a slight nod of assent, at which Angela placed her hand tenderly on the other woman’s cheek. “If you let me I promise you I will see an end to their career and ensure that they never hold the power they had over you over anyone else again. This is your choice. You are in control here. I will support you in whatever you choose.”

The choice wasn’t difficult but the choosing was. There was a lot of silence. It was surprising how much of it the room could hold but when the silence was spent, Sombra spoke.   
She told Angela of some very very bad memories she had. She spoke and she spoke and she spoke as she waited for the silence to return. But it didn’t. And it wouldn’t.


End file.
